Transit Police to Eject Subway Panhandlers

By CALVIN SIMS

Published: May 31, 1990

All panhandlers, including people who are silently extending a cup, would be ejected from the subway system under stringent guidelines announced yesterday by the new chief of the New York City transit police.

The guidelines follow a Federal appeals court decision earlier this month that upheld a Transit Authority ban on begging in the subway system. The court held that begging was not a constitutionally protected form of speech.

The new rules are an attempt to spell out for the first time exactly what constitutes panhandling and how the ban on begging should be enforced.

In the past, some transit officers have said that they were uncertain what constituted panhandling or when they could legally arrest or eject someone from the subway system for begging.

The chief, William J. Bratton, who was named to the post six weeks ago, said in a videotaped message shown to transit officers yesterday that the guidelines were needed to ''clear up any misunderstanding and confusion'' among officers about how and when to enforce the regulations and to ''restore order to a system that the public believes is out of control.''

He instructed them to eject panhandlers on their first encounter. ''Ejection, rather than warning, will be the preferred and recommended method of correcting a condition when a summons or an arrest is not appropriate,'' he said. ''Eventually, these offenders will get the point that they cannot lay waste to our transportation system.''

Under the new guidelines, panhandling is defined as a private person soliciting money or charity for their own purposes. The ban prohibits all forms of panhandling, including the act of quietly extending a cup, even if the person is not making a verbal pitch or acting aggressively toward passengers.

Artistic performers and members of charitable, religious, or political groups may solicit contributions in the subway system provided that they do not obstruct or interfere with transit services and do not do so on subway trains.

Transit officers may ask solicitors for charities to provide evidence that the charity is licensed, registered, or tax exempt.

Chief Bratton discussed the new guidelines with about 40 transit officers yesterday at a roll-call meeting at the start of a tour of duty at the District 2 Transit Police station in the subway station at Canal Street and Avenue of the Americas.

Some transit officers said that they would still have difficulty enforcing the ban because the guidelines say nothing about how much force should be used in evicting a panhandler.

''Do you put the cuffs on a guy and drag him out of the station because he refuses to stop holding out his hand for money?'' asked one officer.

In response, Chief Bratton told the officers to use their ''skill and experience'' in ejecting beggars.

Other transit officers who attended the roll-call said that it was clear to them that they should ''remove the panhandlers at any cost,'' but they said that such rigorous enforcement would take them off trains and away from subway platforms, at the expense of riders' safety.

Advocacy groups for homeless people, who account for the majority of the panhandlers in the subway system, said the new rules and their enforcement would be devastating.

''It's one thing to tell panhandlers not to harass subway riders, but it's a completely different motivation when you throw people out of the system for quietly waving a cup,'' said Peter P. Smith, president of The Partnership for the Homeless.

''The Transit Authority is taking very scarce manpower and directing it towards a population that is just trying to survive while there is a mini crime spree going on in the subways,'' Mr. Smith said.

Standing Quietly Wiith a Cup

Mr. Smith questioned the Transit Authority's rationale in prohibiting a person from standing quietly in the subways with a cup, while at the same time permitting another person to stand with a cup provided they have a musical instrument.

A spokesman for the Transit Authority said yesterday that artistic performers are allowed to solicit in the subways because they are protected under the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech.

But artistic performers must comply with the authority's rules that prohibit them from performing near token booths, stairs, and other places that would interfere with transit operations, the spokesman said.